NBA Nick Nurse focused on Sixers beating Raptors in return to Toronto
MILWAUKEE–Philadelphia 76ers coach Nick Nurse spent 10 seasons north of the border with the Toronto Raptors. He spent five seasons as an assistant and five years as a head coach.
In his five seasons as coach, Nurse conjured up a record of 227-163 while also guiding the Raptors to their one and only championship in 2019. He will go down as one of the greats in Toronto sports due to the success he had with the organization.
As Nurse makes his return to the Scotiabank Arena on Saturday with the Sixers, he is happy about what he had accomplished in Toronto, but his focus is on beating the Raptors.
“Obviously, an amazing 10 years there for me,” Nurse said of his time with the Raptors. “Got nothing, but great memories from going there. I have to shove that to the side and get our team ready to play. That probably concerns me the most that we get ready to learn from this game and and see if we can’t play a little better and if we do that, we’ll be in good shape.”
The Sixers will be looking to get on the board against the Raptors after a tough 118-117 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on the road on Thursday. They showed a lot of good things as they were right there with an opportunity to win despite the challenges they are facing at the moment regarding James Harden.
“We showed a lot of really good things and again there’s lots of learning curves for me,” Nurse added. “For the guys, there’s some certainly some improvement areas that we can make and if we can do that in a relatively short time, we’ll be fine.”
The Sixers and the Raptors will tip off at 7:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday.
